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Paganini caprice 20
Video by
paganini
5 minutes, 53 seconds long
Published 28 December, 2009
Keywords: Jack Glatzer This 20th caprice continues our focus on imitations of other instruments, here we have a splendid imitation of a bagpipe at the beginning of this pastoral caprice. [Music] Beautiful, Italian, simple, almost folk melody here, but what's so interesting technically and in terms of sonority is that the D string is never touches it just drones the whole time, while on the A string the fingers change. [Music] One has to be very careful in playing these works so that that not even a little tip of the fingernail touches another string because the music is so delicate that the resonant ringing string would be deadened by even that bit of fingernail, or certainly the flesh of the finger. So it takes great accuracy of finger movements to perform these works as I think they should be and there are pictures of Paganini playing on tightropes because what we're dealing with is practically four tightropes here in a manual way. So that's the opening, this pastoral with lovely melody. But then the next section is wild and bizarre, with ricochet bow strokes combined with fast trills, snapping sounds, clickings, shooting of the fingers of the lower string right up to high high searing notes. [Music] It's all so bizarre and all so contrasting with the opening part that I would like to mention what a London reviewer said about Paganini, about the great contrasts in his music. He said 'Paganini abuses his powers, he could play divinely, and does so for a minute or two, but then come his tricks and surprises, his bow in convulsions.'. What a word, isn't it funny to say convulsions? 'And his enharmonics, like the mewings of a cat.' [Music]
